Containers for food products such as cookies and other snacks typically include a frame surrounded by an outer wrapper. The frame acts as a tray to hold the food product and to protect the food product from damage. One normally gains access to the contents of the container by opening one end of the wrapper, withdrawing the tray from the inside thereof, and then removing the food product from the tray. However, these containers generally do not provide a convenient opening and reclosing arrangement. For example, reclosing of the wrapper, once opened, generally includes simply folding or rolling the end down and clipping the end to keep the wrapper closed.
Reclosable seals have been used for dispensing bags for wet tissues or disposable cleaning wipes. The label on these bags can be pulled back, thereby exposing an opening, allowing access to the wet tissues or wipes inside. Typically, these dispensing bags are completely flexible, formed exclusively of a plastic or other suitable flexible material which closely surrounds the pack of wet tissues or wipes. Examples of these dispensing bags include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,840,270 and 6,026,953, U.S. Design Pat. No. D 447,054 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0182359. However, such known dispensing bags are not well suited for containing food products as these containers fail to provide adequate protection for storing food products.
One recent resealable food container is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0206637, herein incorporated by reference. The disclosed resealable container is adapted for use with food products and includes a frame which defines a polygonal shape and a wrapper which surrounds the frame and has a top opening. A sealing layer is adhesively sealed to the top.
The present invention concerns optimizing sealing characteristics between a sealing cover and the top of a container adjacent an opening of the container, which characteristics include sufficient resealing frequency, sufficiently low noise level during unsealing and desirable peel force to separate a seal between a sealing cover and the top of the container.